The Dallas Stars are playing the Boston Bruins on Tuesday—which means Tyler Seguin is playing the Boston Bruins on Tuesday.

It's Seguin's first game against the team that drafted him in 2010, developed and extended him in 2012 and traded him in 2013. You'll hear more about it over the next two days or so. What it boils down to, as told by general manager Peter Chiarelli in a lengthy interview with WEEI's D.J. Bean, is that the Bruins needed to clear space to re-sign Tuukka Rask and replace Nathan Horton, and Seguin's lack of physicality wasn't a match for Boston's system.

In short, Chiarelli says he knew the trade was an option once Seguin, coming off a 67-point season, signed his pre-lockout, six-year $34.5 million contract extension; the salary cap was bound to drop, and if that happened, someone needed to go. Chiarelli also said that concerns about Seguin's off-ice activities weren't "the only reason" for the move. The entire piece is worth your time.

Whether the trade turns out to be a wise long-term move remains to be seen, though Boston's return was solid enough. In any case, Seguin is linked up with two high-profile trades, and he's still just 21. Enough has been said about the Phil Kessel deal, which put Boston in position to pick Seguin, and trying to pick the winner of it is more difficult now that Seguin is a Star.

If the Edmonton Oilers had their way, it would've gotten complicated even earlier. They tried to acquire the 2010 No. 2 overall pick from Boston.

From Bean:

The Oilers wanted to deal for the second pick in order to get both Seguin and (Taylor) Hall, but their offer wasn’t substantial enough for the Bruins to consider parting with Toronto’s pick, which they’d gotten in the Kessel deal.

“They had made a push, and Tyler’s a talented player, so I could see why they wanted to make that push,” Chiarelli said. “I wasn’t prepared to move up to take the pick, because I felt they were both really close, though different players. I just basically waited to see which player I would get.”

Things fell the way they did and the Bruins grabbed Seguin, whom they deemed to have the biggest skill package in the draft, second overall.

Ooh, hypothetical time!

— Seguin winds up in Edmonton centering a line with Hall and, say, Jordan Eberle. They produce enough off the bat to save the Oilers a few ping-pong balls in the draft lottery.

— Seguin isn't around to have his two-goal, two-assist game for Boston in Game 2 of the 2011 Eastern Conference finals. Tampa Bay goes on to win in seven games, then gets swept in the Cup finals by the Vancouver Canucks.

— Edmonton doesn't wind up with the No. 1 pick, but still has to fork over the No. 2 pick in the 2011 draft to the Bruins, who use it on Gabriel Landeskog. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, meanwhile, is on the Colorado Avalanche.